Moment of speaking, also known as moment of speech, time of speaking, is a very important concept when studying languages, tenses in particular.
Moment of speaking is a point in time when somebody is speaking. This point is always “live”, current time. This moment is always relative to time when an action / event takes place. We always compare moment of speaking and action (state) in terms of when these two happen.
Action happened before the moment (of speaking)
He drank 5 cups of water.
Action will happen after the moment
He will drink 5 cups of water
Action is happening at the moment
He is drinking water
Action happens from time to time, periodically, regularly around the time of speaking.
He drinks 5 cups of water every day
He drinks every day and tomorrow he will do it too, because he does it every day. The signal words can be sometimes, from time to time, usually, often etc. Anything that shows a recurring basis including next time from the moment of speaking.
The above examples are very simple, keep in mind that with one tense you can express present, past, and future actions! For example, Present Simple can do that all!
Additionally, we need to know this term, because we make decisions before, or at this time of speaking
Decision made before the moment
He is going to drink 5 cups of water every day
We are getting married in July
Decision made at the moment
I will drink 5 cups of water every day
As you can see, the concept is very important in studying languages.
We can view this point in time as moment of writing, and moment of thinking. All the above said applies to these terms too. For example she wrote:
We are getting married in July
Decision made before moment of writing.
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